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Congratulations to Libby at From 0 to Runner! You’ll be getting an awesome Sample Box from YouBar with 2 bars, 2 protein shake mixes, 2 trail mix bags, and a $15 gift certificate. I hope you love it as much as I do! :)

Send your address to runkerarun at gmail dot com so your package can be sent over.

Last night I attended a running seminar held at a nearby Lululemon Athletica about running injuries and prevention. The class was led by a physical therapist, and went over the difference between muscles, tendons and ligaments, common runner injuries, and how to treat and prevent injuries from happening. I’m a huge nerd and read and read and read about a topic until I either a) am really comfortable with it, or b) I get bored. So I’ve read a lot about running and injuries… heck, I’ve had enough injuries from my dancing days, I just might have hit each muscle group. I was familiar with a good amount of topics, but there was a good amount thrown in that I wasn’t aware of before.

Shin splints: did you know these aren’t caused by the muscle in your shin, but a muscle deep in the calf called the ‘soleus?’

If the soleus is too tight, it can pull back on the bone and cause pain out front. One way to stretch out the soleus is to do a form of a regular calf stretch, but bending the knee at least 30°.

I’ve done this stretch before this class, not knowing what its real purpose was, and thought it was stupid. I couldn’t feel a stretching in my calf, so I stopped doing it. But the stretch goes a lot deeper than a regular wall stretch, and I’m pretty sure a tight soleus is one of the causes of my crazy foot pain the other week.

The physical therapist also went over IT band issues. Since mine is acting up a bit, I was all like HOORAY! She did some foam roller demos, as well as a couple standing/floor leaning stretches.

Overall, I enjoyed the class. Many of the attendees were just starting out (after the seminar series is over, the group is starting a running club that’ll build up to a 5K), but the info was useful to beginners and veterans alike. One of the seminar organizers even had some questions, and she was a highly seasoned runner.

How the heck do you manage it? Seriously. This week has been one giant choice between being social and sticking to my training, all while not becoming sleep deprived.

If the plans were with people I could see at any time, then whatever. But one night I went out with my cousin, who was visiting from Florida. Another night I was trapped in the house because of snow. Last night I was at work until 7pm, saw a friend, and got home at 11pm.

Every day on my way to work I see people running, and I WISH I had the time to run without getting up before 5am.

How do you guys balance training and socializing? I don’t have many runner friends, as I know many of you do. So I can’t do the whole “combining socializing and training” thing.

And to those of you that run at lunch: do you have a shower at work? If not, how do you de-gross-ify? I work in an absolutely amazing running area (a long tree-lined mall a block away, and the Charles River/Esplanade about a quarter of a mile away), so I want to take advantage of that when the ice clears.

IT’S FRIDAY!

Tomorrow I’m running 12 miles before going on my friend’s 2nd annual Red Sox-themed pub crawl that I helped plan. I am using both of those events as an excuse to eat whatever the heck I want in the next 24 hours. And I’ll be consuming copious amounts of salt in order to not cramp up once more.

ONE

If you missed my edit last night, YouBar got back to me on the coupon code! Just enter runkerarun in the coupon field to receive 5% off your purchase. And don’t forget to enter the giveaway for a YouBar Sample Box and gift certificate!

TWO

THREE

My legs seem to be all better after Sunday’s cramping debacle. I have 8 miles scheduled for tomorrow and 12 on Saturday. You better believe I’ll be more primed and conditioned this time around. No cramping for me! I think I can, I think I can…

Work is supersuperbusy today, no more writing from me. Maybe I should finally eat lunch. It’s 1:40pm. Yes, lunch is a good idea.

The Review

I am SO EXCITED to tell you guys about this company. I first discovered YouBars through the site Groupon. I purchased a gift certificate worth $25 for $12, and I’m so happy to have found them.

Most of you guys have heard of Lärabars, right? These are like Lärabars, but totally customized! YouBar makes custom nutrition bars, trail mix, protein shake mix, cookies, and cereal. It’s an incredibly simple process, too. You simply choose which type of product you want to make, then check off all the items you want to include in there. You choose a base, protein powder, nuts/seeds, fruit/berries, sweeteners, seasonings, grains, and infusions, as well as the strength of each ingredient. It even calculates nutrition information as you go. Once you’re done creating your bar, you even get to name it :)

I made a box of nutrition bars using my coupon, and it took me a while to order since I couldn’t choose what I wanted in there! I finally decided on an autumn-inspired bar:

YouBar Base (almond butter and organic dates)

whey protein

organic pumpkin seeds

organic flax seeds

organic apples

organic black mission figs

organic brown rice syrup

cinnamon

organic ginger

crunchy rice cereal

all-one vitamin infusion

IT IS DELICIOUS. The flax seeds add this wonderful toasty, nutty flavor to it, and the pumpkin seeds give it a bit of pop. The almond butter and date base holds the bar together well, but it isn’t as dense as a Lärabar (I always found them too dense to finish). The crunchy rice cereal isn’t very apparent, but there’s still a hint of crunch. I think I like the crunch level for this type of bar; any crunchier and it’d be chunky.

And of course I named it…

Running Fuel! I eat one before my training sessions and it fills me up for quite a while.

The Giveaway

I emailed the folks at YouBar and they have kindly agreed to give away a YouBar Starter Box to one lucky reader! The Starter Box includes:

a $15 gift certificate towards any YouBar product

two pre-made nutrition bars

two pre-made protein shake mixes

two pre-made bags of trail mix

Yum yum yum!

The contest ends at 11:59pm on February 24th, and you have four chances to win:

Go to YouBars.com, check out the products, and leave me a comment with which product you’d like to create, and which flavor combo appeals to you.

Add my blog to your RSS feed and let me know in another comment.

Link to this post from your blog (1 entry), or Twitter/Facebook/Whatever (another entry) and let me know in another comment.

Love what you see on YouBar, but don’t want to wait for the end of the contest? Just use coupon code runkerarun to get 5% off your order!